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I mean music theory, here. It is funny that what goes by the name music theory would be, in literature, the equivalent of prosody and plot c...

Friday, March 26, 2010

Is Education Preparation?

I don't view education primarily as preparation for a later stage in life when education is over. It's easy to see it that way, but I see it more as something like a practice that should have no fixed end. For example, a musician takes lessons, but is already a musician from the time s/he's taking lessons. The professional should still take lessons from a more accomplished professional. The musician still practices even after sh/e has learned to play.

Children playing in the park are doing what they ought to be doing: playing. You could see playing as part of a necessary preparation for being an adult, part of the way the child develops. I'm sure play has a developmental role, but the child is not simply preparing to be a different sort of person, but being a child in the here and now.